2020 Retrospective

I am very thankful that 2020 was not for me what it was for so many. There were inconveniences, make no mistake, but nothing like what others have endured. No family health situations, no financial issues. I have been very lucky. Like everyone I miss going out to dinner, to shows, and I worry for these businesses. It has, however, afforded me more time to watch movies. Boy, howdy.

In 2011 I recorded 68 posts, a number I never even approached. That record that fell hard. But maybe the real record was the 60 posts from my first year. Over ten months, that averages six per month. That’s 72 prorated over a full year. In 2020, I managed 73 posts. But then again, I didn’t do a retrospective the first year. I may be overthinking this. Records are meaningless.

I think the best film of the year was The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). It had been on and off my DVR for years but I never brought myself to watch it. It didn’t seem like a “great film” and it was fairly long. Don’t Fear the Long Film. It’s a good motto. I rated eighteen films a 4 so you have your pick of honorable mentions.

I mentioned Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) in last year’s retrospective and managed to make it happen. Not a Judy fan, I was surprised to like it as much as I did. It was one of only two Christmas films this year. I even purchased one and somehow neglected to watch it. Sorry, George C.

I didn’t include any essential horror films this past October. Could the best really be The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)? It’s not hard to see which ones are missing. But for personal reasons, I rewatched some schlocky favorites and watched a few schlocky new ones. Rosemary’s Baby (1968) will have to wait. I did see the legendary Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966) which lived up to its reputation as absolute crap. It is a completely amateur production and shouldn’t even count as a feature film. The worst of the year, however, was Saturday Night Fever (1977).

How can a film so successful, so famous, so popular in its day, be so completely unwatchable and unlikable? It has nothing going for it. There were too many films for me to pick which one surprised me the most but this definitely was the most disappointing. And I went in with very low expectations. I will repeat what I said in the post: The film would have been better if the entire cast jumped off a bridge in the first act.

I may have watched my last Woody Alan film. Manhattan (1979) is arguably his best and I found it just passable. And casting seventeen year old Mariel Hemingway as his sex partner made me feel filthy. I may too have seen the last of Laurel and Hardy. Nothing they do even remotely amuses me.

I do expect to see a lot of Hitchcock in 21. I have seven already recorded plus a DVD compilation with fifteen more of his early, public domain films. They will be a chore. If my count is correct, that leaves another fifteen, including collaborations and lost films. I may never see any of those.

I also expect to watch the rest of the Marx Brothers films. Of their thirteen I have three to go, and two are sitting on my DVR. Also, I’d like to see the rest of the Sherlock Holmes films, although they don’t interest me as much as they once did. Another Bond may be on the table. Can I bring myself to watch an Elvis film?

It was a good year, blog-wise. I don’t expect seventy posts in 2021, but I hope to approach 60. But as we all learned, predictions are hard. Persevere.